Foreign Assistance: U.S. Democracy Assistance for Cuba Needs Better Management & Oversight

Foreign Assistance: U.S. Democracy Assistance for Cuba Needs Better Management & Oversight PDF Author:
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 9781422309926
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 68

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Foreign Assistance: U.S. Democracy Assistance for Cuba Needs Better Management & Oversight

Foreign Assistance: U.S. Democracy Assistance for Cuba Needs Better Management & Oversight PDF Author:
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 9781422309926
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 68

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Book Description


Cuba Democracy Assistance

Cuba Democracy Assistance PDF Author: David Gootnick
Publisher: U.S. Government Accountability Office
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 58

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Book Description
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Department of State (State) provide democracy assistance for Cuba aimed at developing civil society and promoting freedom of information. Typical program beneficiaries include Cuban community leaders, independent journalists, women, youths, and marginalized groups. USAID receives the majority of funding allocated for this assistance, although State has received 32 percent of funding since 2004. In recent years, both USAID and State have provided more funding for program implementation to for-profit and nongovernmental organizations (NGO) with a worldwide or regional focus than to universities and to NGOs that focus only on Cuba. All types of implementing partners, but worldwide or regional organizations in particular, used subpartners to implement program activities under 21 of the 29 awards and contracts that GAO reviewed. USAID and State legal officials view the Cuba democracy program’s authorizing legislation as allowing the agencies discretion in determining the types of activities that can be funded with program assistance. Agency officials added that the agencies ensure that program activities directly relate to democracy promotion as broadly illustrated in related program legislation. The officials stated that organizations are expected to work with agency program officers to determine what activities are permitted or appropriate. In addition, they said that program partners and subpartners are expected to spend U.S. government funds consistent with U.S. laws, and that requirements in primary award agreements generally flow down to any subpartners. USAID has improved its performance and financial monitoring of implementing partners’ use of program funds by implementing new policies and hiring contractors to improve monitoring and evaluation and to conduct financial internal controls reviews, but GAO found gaps in State’s financial monitoring. While GAO found some gaps in implementing partners’ performance planning and reporting, both agencies are taking steps to improve performance monitoring. For financial monitoring, USAID performs financial internal controls reviews of its implementing partners with the assistance of an external auditor. Since 2008, USAID has used a risk-based approach to determine the coverage and frequency of the 30 reviews the auditor has conducted, which have identified weaknesses in implementing partners’ financial management, procurement, and internal controls. However, because of resource constraints, State did not perform financial internal controls reviews for more than two-thirds of its implementing partners during fiscal years 2010 through 2012. State procured an external financial auditor in September 2012 that plans to review more than half of State’s implementing partners, and has taken steps toward implementing a risk-based approach for scheduling these reviews. Federal regulations generally require agencies to approve the use of subpartners. GAO found that USAID issued specific guidance in 2011 to its implementing partners on requirements for subpartner approval. While State told GAO it has similar requirements, State’s requirements are not clearly specified in its written guidance. As a result, State was not provided with the information it would have needed to approve at least 91 subawards and subcontracts that were obligated under eight awards. Why GAO Did This Study: Since 1996, Congress has appropriated $205 million to USAID and State to support democracy assistance for Cuba. Because of Cuban government restrictions, conditions in Cuba pose security risks to the implementing partners—primarily NGOs—and subpartners that provide U.S. assistance. For this report, GAO (1) identified current assistance, implementing partners, subpartners, and beneficiaries; (2) reviewed USAID’s and State’s efforts to implement the program in accordance with U.S. laws and regulations and to address program risks; and (3) examined USAID’s and State’s monitoring of the use of program funds. This report is a publicly releasable version of a Sensitive But Unclassified Report that GAO issued in December 2012. What GAO Recommends: GAO is recommending that State take steps to improve its financial monitoring of implementing partners and provide clear guidance for approving subpartners. State concurred with GAO’s recommendations and cited steps they are taking to address them.

Foreign Assistance

Foreign Assistance PDF Author: United States. Government Accountability Office
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Cuba
Languages : en
Pages : 58

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Book Description


Gao-07-147 Foreign Assistance

Gao-07-147 Foreign Assistance PDF Author: United States Government Accountability Office
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781984369437
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 64

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Book Description
GAO-07-147 Foreign Assistance: U.S. Democracy Assistance for Cuba Needs Better Management and Oversight

Foreign Assistance

Foreign Assistance PDF Author: U S Government Accountability Office (G
Publisher: BiblioGov
ISBN: 9781289228903
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 66

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Book Description
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent agency that works for Congress. The GAO watches over Congress, and investigates how the federal government spends taxpayers dollars. The Comptroller General of the United States is the leader of the GAO, and is appointed to a 15-year term by the U.S. President. The GAO wants to support Congress, while at the same time doing right by the citizens of the United States. They audit, investigate, perform analyses, issue legal decisions and report anything that the government is doing. This is one of their reports.

Foreign Assistance

Foreign Assistance PDF Author: United States Government Accountability Office
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781976356117
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 64

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Book Description
U.S. law authorizes aid for nonviolent democratic change in Cuba. From 1996-2005, State and USAID awarded grants totaling $74 million to support such change. A presidential commission recently recommended increasing funding for these efforts. This report examines (1) agency roles in implementing this aid and selection of grantees; (2) types of aid, recipients, and methods of delivery reported in 2005; (3) oversight of grantees; and (4) data about the impact of this aid. To address these objectives, we analyzed the activities and internal controls, and USAID's oversight and management of, 10 grantees with about 76 percent (in dollars) of total active awards for Cuba democracy aid. Our review focused on USAID because State's first awards were not made until mid-2005.

A Contemporary Cuba Reader

A Contemporary Cuba Reader PDF Author: Philip Brenner
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742555075
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
A collection of essays that explore a wide range of topics related to Cuban politics, economics, foreign policy, social transformation, and culture in the post-Soviet era.

Foreign Assistance

Foreign Assistance PDF Author: David Gootnick
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 1437911854
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
The U.S. Agency for Internat. Development¿s (USAID) Cuba Program provides assistance to support human rights and promote nonviolent democratic change in Cuba. From 1996 through 2008, the program awarded $83 million in grants to nongovernmental org. and univ. In 2006, weaknesses were found that increased the risk of grantees' improperly using grant funds and failing to comply with U.S. laws. In 2008, misuse of grant funds at org. with the program's two largest grants was detected. This report examines: (1) actions that USAID has taken since 2006, or plans to take, to improve its award and oversight of the Cuba Program's grants; and (2) actions that USAID has taken in response to the recently detected misuses of grant funds. Illus.

Fifty Years of Revolution

Fifty Years of Revolution PDF Author: Soraya M. Castro Mariño
Publisher: University Press of Florida
ISBN: 0813043611
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
In the years since the Cuban Revolution in 1959, eleven men have served as president of the United States, arguably the most powerful nation on earth. Yet none of them has been able to effect any significant change in the stalemate between the United States and Cuba, its closest neighbor not to share a land border. Fifty Years of Revolution features contributions from an international Who's Who gallery of leading scholars. The volume adopts a uniquely nonpartisan attitude, a departure from this topic's generally divisive nature. Emerging from a series of meetings, conference panels, and lectures, the book coheres more strongly than the typical essay collection. Organized to analyze--not describe--Cuba’s foreign relations, the work examines sanctions, the embargo, regime change, Guantánamo, the exile community, and more. Drawing from personal experiences as well as recently declassified documents, these essays update, summarize, and explain one of the prickliest political issues in the Western Hemisphere today.

The Taming of Democracy Assistance

The Taming of Democracy Assistance PDF Author: Sarah Sunn Bush
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316240541
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
Few government programs that aid democracy abroad today seek to foster regime change. Technical programs that do not confront dictators are more common than the aid to dissidents and political parties that once dominated the field. What explains this 'taming' of democracy assistance? This book offers the first analysis of that puzzle. In contrast to previous research on democracy aid, it focuses on the survival instincts of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that design and implement democracy assistance. To survive, Sarah Bush argues that NGOs seek out tamer types of aid, especially as they become more professional. Diverse evidence - including three decades of new project-level data, case studies of democracy assistance in Jordan and Tunisia, and primary documents gathered from NGO archives - supports the argument. This book provides new understanding of foreign influence and moral actors in world politics, with policy implications for democracy in the Middle East.